Does Social Pension Expansion Relieve Depression and Decrease Medical Costs? Evidence From the Rural Elderly in China.

ABSTRACT: Objectives: This study was designed to explore the effect of the New Rural Pension Scheme on depressive symptoms or medical costs induced by depression. Methods: We used the Logit, OLS and 2SLS models to explore the impact of the pension on depression and medical costs. We also adopt the method of quantile regression and discontinuity regression to verify the causal relationship between the New Rural Pension Scheme and depression or medical costs induced by depression of the rural elderly. Results: We have found that the New Rural Pension Scheme decreases depressive symptoms of elderly in rural China (OR = 0.90), and the medical costs induced by depressive symptoms by 4.6%. Regression discontinuity results showed that pension significantly reduced the depressive sympto

SUBMITTER: Zhou M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8966648 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature